12/30/08

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Conventional single junction solar cells including silicon based cells are inefficient and hence conventional semiconductor raw material and the processes used to convert the raw materials into functional cells are at present costlier. Quantum dot based solar cells are supposed to reduce the cost and increase the efficiency. Quantum dots are semiconductor nanoparticles that exhibit size and compositionally tunable bandgaps and so it is possible to incorporate different types and sizes of quantum dots into the same cell so that they perfectly match and absorb a maximum of the light of the solar spectrum and be highly efficient. It is possible that semiconductor polymers or inks to be deposited onto low cost substrates using high throughput roll-to-roll and printing techniques or by quantum dot based solar cells approaches including, luminescent concentrator cells, quantum dot dye sensitized solar cells, multiple exciton generation, and intermediate band solar cells. Quantum dots can be produced in bulk via chemical manufacturing techniques and hence cost effective high throughput solar cells can be produced.